Modern beekeeping in Poland
Polish beekeeping is one of the fastest growing in Europe. Beekeeping in Poland has its own characteristics, which we will discuss in this article.
Achievements of Polish beekeeping
In Poland, there are 39,000 beekeepers in various organizations and only about 140 professional beekeepers who maintain 1,400,000 bee colonies, which puts Poland in sixth place in the EU in terms of the number of bee colonies. On average, the Polish apiary has 33 bee colonies. This allows Polish beekeepers to receive 25,000 tons of honey per year. Over the past 15 years, the number of bee colonies has doubled, honey production has increased significantly, which has increased the export of honey by 10 times, currently about 2-3 thousand tons of honey is exported per year, but imports of 7,000 tons of honey per year have increased significantly.
In total, there were more than 2 million hives in Poland in 2021.
The average consumption of honey by a Pole per year is 750 grams.
Where are the most bees in Poland
Most of the bees are located in the apiaries of 5 voivodships - Lubelskie, Warmia-Mazury, Podkarpackie, Lesser Poland, Wielkopolska. The apiaries of these voivodeships produce most of the Polish honey.
Features of using different breeds of bees in Poland
Where to buy bees in Poland
Polish carnika (lines of carnika from Poland) and other Polish bees
Development of apitherapy in Poland
The development of apitherapy in Poland has made great progress, three large apitherapy centers have been established in Warsaw, Krakow and Katowice. These centers are actively studying the effect of bee products and honey in the treatment of serious diseases. A new line of activity for beekeepers is planned, the processing of honey into honey, in order to obtain more active honey. It is believed that such honey recycled by bees has a 30-50% more active effect on the human body and is used by apitherapists.
Which apiary in Poland is profitable
For Poland, an apiary of 200 bee families is considered the minimum for making a profit, for a professional beekeeper who is engaged only in beekeeping. The bulk of beekeepers in Poland are farmers who are engaged in agriculture - 60% and about 40% of beekeepers have other professions.
Most apiaries are small-scale apiaries with several dozen beehives, in 2013 97% of apiaries with 1-80 bee families, Polish beekeepers compensate for the high cost of honey by selling honey without intermediaries, honey is sold directly from the apiary, as a result, the beekeeper receives an additional 80-100% of the profit. So earlier, wholesalers bought polyfloral honey at 2.3 euros per kg, and beekeepers sold from the apiary to consumers at 5.4 euros per kg. Honeydew honey from hardwoods, respectively, 3.7 and 7.3 euros per kg. In 2000, only 50% of Polish beekeepers were engaged in direct sales, at present, almost all beekeepers have excluded dealers from the beekeeper-consumer chain. This trend also exists in some other countries of Eastern Europe, where the exclusion of dealers and the sale of honey directly to consumers has led to a decrease in adulteration in the market, the growth of confidence in the quality of natural honey has led to an increase in honey consumption by consumers.
What hives are used in Polish apiaries
Several types of hives are used in Polish apiaries. The most popular is the Wielkopolska hive (Ul wielkopolski), then the regular and extended Warsaw hive (Ul warszawski) and the Dadan hive for 10, 12 and the most popular - 15 frames. A small percentage of apiaries are equipped with Ostrowskiej, Apipolu and Langstroth hives, in addition, there are hives that are found only for this apiary.
Warsaw hive drawings, advantages, disadvantages
Beehive Greater Poland - description, drawings, advantages and disadvantages
As a rule, beehives are made of wood, often double-walled beehives in stationary Polish apiaries. Apiaries specializing in nomadic beekeeping often have foam and polyurethane hives.
International cooperation of Polish beekeepers
EU aid to Polish beekeepers should not be discounted.
EU assistance is mainly used to buy hives and improve the skills of beekeepers. More than a million euros per year is allocated for the treatment of bees, 7.9 million euros for the purchase of equipment - trailers and other equipment, 1.2 million euros are allocated for the purchase of queens and bee colonies, the cost of the beekeeper to control beekeeping products is 80% compensated.
The efforts made have given their results, for 10 years it has been possible to achieve that Polish honey has become of high quality.
The biggest danger for Polish bees is varroosis, followed by pesticides. Companies producing pesticides are actively filling EU fields, including Polish ones, with pesticides.
Poland is trying to establish cooperation both within Apislavia and within the European Union, since the problems do not end at the administrative border of the EU and Polish beekeepers are actively establishing contacts with countries that are part of Apislavia, but not part of the EU. For example, many pesticides banned in the EU are rarely used in Ukraine, which worries Poland. Everyone wants to eat honey of the highest quality, and Ukraine imports a lot of honey to Poland. The exchange of experience with neighbors is also important for Polish beekeepers.
What is the best honey in Poland
The nature of Poland allows you to get a wide variety of honey varieties. In 2021, most of the Polish honey went to France, Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, Belgium and Hungary. Despite obtaining high-quality honey in Poland, a large amount of honey is imported to Poland from Ukraine and China. The most popular types of honey harvested in Poland
Honeydew honey from coniferous trees, honey from Subcarpathia, Lesser Poland, Cieszyn region and Lower Silesia is especially famous.
Rapeseed honey, which is obtained in many provinces of Poland.
Linden honey from the forests of the Teshin region.
Buckwheat honey from the Sudetes and the Lublin region.
Raspberry honey, which is obtained in the Lubelskie Voivodeship and others.
Heather honey from Lower Silesia.
Acacia honey from Mazovia.
Many types of honey from herbs, which has the status of a regional product - Sudeten, the valleys of Barichi, Lower Vistula, honey from the Mroga river valley, honey from the meadows of the Western Bug, Augustow forests, Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Kashubian honey, Mazurian honey and many other types of excellent Polish honey .
Season in the Polish apiary
Let us describe the standard beekeeping season in a Polish apiary.
The winter club forms in October, when the temperature drops to several degrees above zero, and finally breaks up only in March or April. The work of the uterus resumes in early spring, usually at the end of February.
When the temperature rises to 10°C, which happens in Poland at the end of February or in the first half of March, the bees begin their first flight en masse.
The most important pre-spring event is the fight against varroatosis - treatment is performed with apivarol or oxalic acid on the first warm day after the first flight of bees.
If the bees run out of food, we give the bees top dressing - a portion of candi.
The first commercial honey collection in Polish apiaries from rapeseed.
In Poland, rapeseed begins to bloom at the turn of April and May, although in the west of Poland it can be the first half of April, and in the late spring years in the east of Poland even mid-May. To obtain a large honey collection from rapeseed, bee colonies have been preparing since July last year, increasing a large number of young bees for wintering.
Where there is no rapeseed, bees collect nectar from dandelions, orchards, and maples.
In some areas, in mid-July, there is no longer a honey collection, and the beekeeper prepares the bees for winter, feeding them and doing other work.
But in other parts of Poland, there is honey collection not only in summer, but also in autumn.
The second productive honey harvest in Poland begins on the white locust.
In May, after the end of the flowering of rapeseed and before the flowering of acacia, there is often a break in the honey flow and the bees develop a swarm mood, the beekeepers form layers at this time.
After collecting acacia honey, the bees in the commercial apiary work on lime or buckwheat honey collection. Limes bloom in late June or early July, at the same time the earliest sown buckwheat blooms. The abundance of nectar in buckwheat largely depends on the period of its sowing.
Therefore, a beekeeper may face a dilemma: whether to take bees for linden or buckwheat.
Late honey harvest in Poland is provided by heather and goldenrod, which provide a lot of pollen. Beekeepers have to take care of how to pump heather honey.
In summer and autumn, strong families collect honeydew honey.
For the winter, each strong family should have 15-18 kg of winter food in the nest; it makes no sense to leave weak families in the winter. Winter food in the amount of 18 kg fits in 8-10 Wielkopolska combs and in 7-8 Dadant or Warsaw expanded combs filled on ¾ of their surface.
Winter in Poland lasts a long time, even until the beginning of April, and the biggest frosts can come in February, i.e. 5-6 months after the end of feeding.
Autumn treatment of ticks with oxalic acid, which is watered with bees in late autumn, is carried out in the first half of November.
